


The gift of friendship

by Fanfic_CJ



Category: Charlie's Angels (TV 1976), Magic Kaito, 名探偵コナン | Detective Conan | Case Closed
Genre: Mention of canon-typical violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-12
Updated: 2018-12-12
Packaged: 2019-09-16 17:07:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,421
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16958079
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fanfic_CJ/pseuds/Fanfic_CJ
Summary: Sabrina runs across Aoko and Kaito and feels compelled to tell a story.





	The gift of friendship

**Author's Note:**

> Timeline-bunnies ahead:  
> Sabrina and the other Angels are in their mid-to-late 30ties, the DC and MK cast are in their early 20ties.   
> Maybe 1980 to 2015 ran past 3 years for a year or something?
> 
> Not beta'd, so give me a shout for typos and stuff.

Sabrina looks up from her coffee as two people pass her table bickering loudly. They sit down in the next niche. The women looked like Ran? And she has seen that guy before. Strange. She can’t really hear what they are saying, but they sound strained, the women’s voice – not at all like Ran’s – holds angry undertones. The man’s voice is cajoling. Sabrina sips her coffee, concentrating on the voices from the right. But she can only make out single words. Birthday. Peace. Bakaito? Whatever does that mean?

Her curiosity getting the better of her, she makes her ways to the restroom, looking at them out of the corner of her eyes. The women-she really looks a lot like Ran, just full of a deep, long-term anger, hurt and sadness that Ran doesn’t have–has her arms folded across her chest. Like she is expecting to be hurt again. The guy leans back into his seat, gesturing madly while he is talking. It looks like he is trying to tell a joke. The postures prod her, as if she remembers seeing moments like this. Trying to catch the memory, she walks into the restroom.

He is just finishing a card trick as they come into view again. Hm, the guy looks like Kudo, Sabrina thinks. He starts a new trick, and for a moment, some scarves hide his eyes, shadowing them like a hat brim. Sabrina stares. Sure, she has seen him, that day Ran and she got an unexpected eyeful of Kudo and his girlfriend entertaining at home. So he must be that retired phantom thief. Just then, he closes the trick with conjuring two roses, a yellow one, and a red one. The woman stares at them, saying something. The man’s gaze turns away from her face – and he catches Sabrina staring at them. “Can I help you?” he inquires politely, actually addressing her in English. The woman turns around.

“Oh, I’m sorry” Sabrina answers, slightly blushing. “I didn’t mean to stare, it’s just that your companion looks very much like a good friend of mine.” She offers a slight bow to the women. “And who that might be?”, the brunette asks in a rather suspicious tone of voice and switching to Japanese. “Mouri Ran-san.” Sabrina replies. The woman relaxes visibly. His tension shifts, like he discarded one dangerous reason for her staring in favor of a different, equally dangerous reason. “You know Mouri-san? How is she doing? ” the woman starts out. “I’m Nakamori Aoko.“ The name Nakamori has come up in practically every news story about the phantom thief Sabrina has read. Strange. “My name is Sabrina Duncan. Ran … san is doing well.” The guy’s reaction to her name catches Sabrina’s attention for the moment and she fumbles to remember the adequate honorific. It’s easy to get Namakori-san to talk, she goes to the police academy and this makes it easy to come up with adequate questions. Sabrina is offered a seat at their table.

************

Kaito nearly jumps at the name. This was the private detective Kudo had asked him to look into last month, to check if there could be any connections to the BO. She came up clean, but why in the world does she show up here and start talking to Aoko? He excuses himself and sends a frantic text to Kudo. The reply is short:

> Relax, she is A-OK. Her lover saved Ran’s life two weeks ago. XXX

Kaito facepalms. That is so like them.

When he tunes in back to them talking, Aoko just asks “Why did you leave the police and became a private detective?” He starts to listen. “Uh,” Duncan-san says, making a face. “ You know, it was the dark ages. The set me and my female friends to do the total scutwork, typing reports, traffic control, like they were trying to bore us out of the job. The guys in our class got out investigating on scene much faster. And when we were allowed out of the scutwork, is was into juvy or stuff. Jill, who is really good-looking, found herself the bait for vice for four months in a row. It was so annoying.” Aoko looks at her in astonishment. “They let you do the academy just to let you do stuff afterwards that didn’t need anything the academy taught?! What a waste!” Kaito nods. He would look up why working for vice as bait was even a thing. “And then we got this offer from an established agency. They would take all three of us as investigators, working the field, even undercover. Lots of independence, really doing the job. Throw in a car for each of us and really good pay. Naturally we jumped to the chance.” Sabrina explains. Aoko nods. “So you have been working most of your lives with your best friends? That must be fantastic!” she enthuses.

“Mostly” Duncan-san says slowly. Kaito sees her eyes flicking from him to Aoko and back to him. She nods once, as if coming to a decision. “Expect when it’s ripping you apart.” she tells her coffee cup. Kaito exchanges a look with Aoko. “What happened?” Aoko asks at last. “13 years ago, Kelly had a bout of homophobic anguish at the worst possible moment in the middle of a case, which resulted in me being shot. After I was out of intensive care, it was a total circus. Kelly was busy being guilty and feeling like she was the greatest monster on earth and Jill was so angry with her, she supplied any munition for Kelly’s downward spiral she could find. And she was angry with me, too, because I didn’t want Kelly to leave the agency. “ Aoko shudders. “That sounds like a really bad place to be” Kaito puts in. Sabrina looks up and looks in his eyes. “Yes.” “But you talked like you are still friends?” Aoko says, sounding confused.

“It took some time and hard work. After an evening where Kelly practically asked Jill to shoot her and Jill looked like she would comply any minute now, I lost my patience with both of them. “ Duncan-san takes a deep breath, and this reminds Kaito to take one as well. “Gave them both the dressing-down of their lives. Kelly understood and managed to mend her act. Jill, … Jill understood but found she couldn’t mend her act and left the agency for a few years.”Duncan-san closes her eyes for a moment, Kaito can see the remembered pain on her face. Aoko watches her very thoughtfully. “But she came back? “ Aoko prods. The American looks at Aoko and a smile chases all pain away. “Yes.” Aoko smiles back, but her brows are drawn together. “Why did you forgive them?” she asks. The American looks down at her cup again, then shakes her bangs out of her eyes and looks at Aoko. “I needed both of them.” She pauses and continues, ”Friendship and love, they are too precious to lose even over bad mistakes and mayor disagreements.” Her eyes flick to Kaito. “It takes time and work to build up trust again, though.”

Then she looks at her mobile, says she has to be somewhere else to meet someone and is gone. Aoko looks at Kaito and they both shake their head simultaneously. Talk about strange. She takes the yellow rose from the table with her left hand, gives it a sniff. The fingers of her right hand caress the petals of the red rose but she doesn’t take it. “I have some food for thought, I think I’ll go home now.”

*******

Jill snuggles up to Sabrina’s back and caresses her hair. “What’s up?” she asks. Sabrina sights and turns her head to give her a kiss. “I told the story of the scar.” her hand slides across the place slightly above her heart. Jill places her hand on the scar. “How come? You haven’t even told Ran yet, because you wanted to avoid the nightmares.” Bree wraps her fingers in Jill’s. “Came across a couple that needed to hear it. Short version” She burrowed into Jill. “Worth it.“ Jill looked down at her lover with a slightly bemused expression. “He saved Ran.” Bree says very softly.

*******

> Text from Kaito to Kudo: Why does she know who I am?
> 
> Text from Kudo to Kaito: Remember the evening with Heiji, Kazuha and Shiho? Ran and she walked in on us.
> 
> Text from Kaito to Kudo: Shit, yes.
> 
> Text from Kaito to Kudo: Wait, what is Ran doing with her?


End file.
